A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 18

The sound of a ticking clock droned loudly in Jubilee's ears as she sat miserably on the couch in Misa's room beside the blond pop star. Across from them sat Light and L on an opposite couch. The only other sound apart from the clock and the awkward silence was L munching noisily on a slice of cake, courtesy of Watari, whose baked contribution sat on the coffee table between them.

"Man," said Misa, her annoyed tone cutting through the silence at last, "This has got to be the lamest date I've ever been on."

Jubilee would have agreed, except that she had never been on a real date. One night stands usually skipped those. She said nothing.

"No, no, please," L spoke through a mouthful of cake as he reached over for another slice, "Just pretend like I'm not even here."

Misa glared at the black-haired man. "You're such a pervert! Could you stop it with your creepy hobby?"

No one deigned to make any response to this; L too busy wolfing down his second slice of cake, Light staring off into space in boredom, and Jubilee focused on looking anywhere but at the detective sitting across from her. Misa huffed angrily.

"When can Misa be alone with Light?" she asked.

"She can't," replied L shortly, before reaching over again for his third slice. "Cake?" he offered politely.

Misa huffed again. "Cake makes you fat. I'm not gonna eat any."

"Actually," said L, his mouth full as he chewed, "I've found that you don't gain any weight as long as you burn calories by using your brain."

"Hmph!" The pop star sat up, fists clenched. "So now you're calling me stupid?"

Somewhere in the midst of her inner turmoil, Jubilee felt the caretaker side of herself that had been ingrained into her at Wakahisa kick in. "No, no," she placated the blonde, shooting L a reproving glare. "You're thin, Misa...therefore you must've been effectively using your brain to burn off calories this whole time."

"Oh." Misa sat back on the couch, processing this explanation. "So it wasn't all that cardio?" she wondered.

"Er...I'm sure it was a combination of both," offered Jubilee lamely.

"And dieting, most likely," piped up L matter-of-factly, ignorant of Jubilee's efforts at negotiating peace in the room. "Which suggests that your brain didn't have too many calories to burn in the first place."

"Wait..." Misa scrunched up her forehead, thinking hard, before indignant revelation broke out across her face. "You are calling me stupid!"

She jumped to her feet and was about to launch herself across the table at L, tiny fists swinging; when Jubilee deftly intercepted her with a yank on the back of her shirt that sent her backwards onto the couch with an oomph.

"Sit down, Misa," Jubilee calmly ordered the younger girl. "It's not worth it to mess up your nails."

Misa thought about it. "Hmph!" she said at last, crossly. "That's too true!" And then she proceeded to hurl a verbal barrage of very loud, very crude insults at L.

Jubilee put a palm to her face. "I give up," she murmured.

"You can call me whatever you like," the detective was saying, his tone one of complete apathy as he reached out for the last slice of cake. "Last chance for cake."

Jubilee swooped in and grabbed it. "I'll take that," she snapped. Digging into the slice with a fork, she grumbled to herself, "I'm not getting paid enough for this."

L graciously ignored the latter statement. "Very well," he sighed, and leaned back into the couch despondently.

Light suddenly spoke up. "What's wrong with you?" he asked L. "I thought moving here was supposed to help us catch Kira. But since we've been here you haven't seemed very motivated at all."